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Want organic additive to reduce electroforming to one third of the normal process time

December 16, 2008

Sir : I am working for a holographic company. I am interested in reducing the process time of electroforming of nickel from the normal process time of 3 hrs to about 90 minutes. Can you suggest addition of some organic additives which will result in such drastic reduction of process time?
We use Nickel sulphamate solution together with nickel chloride, saccharine, nickel carbonate and boric acid for the process.
Thanks and regards,

Subramanian NNV
holographic systems - Mumbai, Maharashtra State, India

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December 17, 2008

Hi, Subramanian. There are no such magic ingredients, but it is always possible that you can speed up your process somewhat. Can you tell us what thickness you need and what current density you presently operate at? Remember that Faraday's Law rules: If you want to plate the same ampere-hours in a lesser time, you need to boost the amperage in proportion. Good luck and get back to us.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

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THERE ARE SOME COMMERCIAL FORMULAS FOR HIGH SPEED ELECTROFORMING.
ESSENTIALLY YOU HAVE TO WORK WITH HIGH NICKEL CONTENT AND HIGHER TEMPERATURE TO PLATE AT HIGHER CURRENT DENSITIES WITHOUT BURNING THE COATING. YOU ALSO NEED MORE MOVEMENT OF THE PARTS OR OF THE SOLUTION. YOU ALSO CAN TRY TO PLATE WITH PULSE PLATING TECHNOLOGY BUT THIS WILL BE ANOTHER OPERA.

Ricardo Burstein
Bnei Berak, Israel
December 18, 2008